LinuxAsia 2007, has Microsoft chipping in some funds and becoming the event’s “interoperability partner”. Excerpt from a recent article titled “MS takes linux world by storm” in the Economic Times:

When asked about its participation in Linux Asia, Microsoft said that the company will try to educate clients and communicate about its new stance towards open source. Mr Radhesh Balakrishnan, director, platform strategy, Microsoft, told ET, “Open source software is turning commercial and commercial software is becoming more open to open source. We believe that interoperability between the two is the way to the future. People have created a myth in the minds of clients that the world can work only either on open source. Rather than being carried over by rhetoric, clients should rather look at lowering TCO (total cost of ownership). According to a Frost & Sullivan study, Windows offers 15.9% lower TCO than Linux on the server side.”

Sigh, don’t we all love the TCO studies funded by Microsoft. Couple of people from there are also giving talks at LinuxAsia on stuff like “Exciting Technology Trends for Developers”. Wonder what the audience feels about that. I think a stall for adverstising “Wow with Vista” is on the cards too. Gee, what fun!

A friend of mine was recently called by the folks at Redmond for an internship; and he’s got “I HATE M$” all over his resume! Looks like Microsoft now wants a piece of the FOSS cake too. Way to go Ballmer, I just can’t wait for the Windows 95 source code to be released ;)